The Sacramento Kings presented a lot of challenges to the Raptors, ones the team was not able to handle.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, in town Sunday for a matinee matchup, present considerably more problems.

The Raptors did not play well on Friday and could not come close to containing big man DeMarcus Cousins. As good as Cousins is and he’s a force, the Thunder duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook is a step above.

“This team scares me as much as anybody because they play random basketball, they’re unpredictable, they’re excellent one-on-one players. At any moment you could be in great help position but any moment they could break off a play and go one-on-one, which they’re very talented to do,” Casey said before Friday’s 105-96 loss to the Kings.

Now, Casey has to game-plan around the Thunder, a team that takes one-on-one play to the next level.

Durant is a basketball savant, seemingly born to play the game. One would be hard-pressed to find 10 — or even five — players — in the history of the league — as difficult to defend. This year, Durant is averaging career bests from the field and from three and is on track to join a prestigious club (of which Toronto’s Jose Calderon is a member) that has shot at least 50% from the field, 40% from three and 90% from the free throw line over an entire season.

Alan Anderson, Landry Fields, Mickael Pietrus and others will take a shot at Durant, but slowing him down is as difficult a feat as there is in the NBA.

And if you double-team Durant, the sublime Westbrook is there to make you pay, Kevin Martin and Thabo Sefolosha are dead-eye shooters and even Serge Ibaka has become an efficient mid-range threat.

Even Casey admitted the other day that Oklahoma City will be the clear favourite.

But strange things happen all the time and if the Raptors can get back to what was working so well over the past couple of weeks — taking care of the ball, getting to the right spots and creating havoc defensively — the game could be closer than Friday’s laughter or OKC’s blowout win over the Raptors back in November.

“We’ve got to bounce back,” Casey said.

Every Raptor, aside possibly from Kyle Lowry, Anderson and Ed Davis, can play considerably better than how they performed on Friday.

Casey needs to get more from his starters and a shakeup soon could be in the offing, with Anderson, Fields and Terrence Ross all producing far more than incumbent Pietrus. Aaron Gray also struggled considerably, though Casey prefers bringing Amir Johnson off of the bench because of foul issues (Johnson fouled out in just under 10 minutes on Friday in his worst outing of the year).

Casey indicated on Friday that Ed Davis had earned his starting spot going forward, even when Andrea Bargnani returns. It will be interesting to see how Davis, who had 11 points and a team-best 13 rebounds against the Kings, will respond now that his coach has shed some light on his future.

Casey has never treated Davis, the son of long-time NBAer Terry Davis, with kid gloves. He has been hard on him over the years — “I asked everybody, ‘have you seen Ed Davis,’ ” Casey quipped earlier in the year when Davis’ performances lacked consistency — but there was a method to his madness.

“I know he can take it, he’s smart, he understands coaching, he knows it’s not personal. He’s mature enough to handle it,” Casey said, adding things won’t change from a coaching standpoint now that Davis is scratching the surface of his potential.

“There’s more growth to be had by him and I’m going to keep pushing him until he gets there”

Davis has averaged 13.4 points and 7.8 rebounds over his past five games and is leading the Raptors in rebounding for the second straight season.

The team made Davis the top dog at Las Vegas Summer League in July and Davis’ jump shot was completely re-worked, leading to significant improvement this campaign.

“He wasn’t ready for what he’s doing now scoring-wise, I don’t think so. I don’t think he had confidence in his shot,” Casey said.

“We want to rush the young guys, (but) he’s a prime example that you can’t rush them. He worked as hard last year, it just took time to get to this point.”

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